The Persianate Studies Workshop cordially invites you next Monday, November 13, 2017, 5 pm – 7 pm for an exciting presentation by Ali Karjoo-Ravary. Refreshments will be served.
Performing God’s Shadow: The Material Production of a 14th Century Anatolian Court
Ali Karjoo-Ravary (Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Religious Studies, University of Pennsylvania)
Monday, Nov. 13, 2017 | 5:00 pm – 7:00 pm | 1022 South Thayer Building
Through an in-depth analysis of the manuscripts produced at the court of Burhan al-Din of Sivas (r. 1381-1398), a regional ruler in eastern Anatolia, this paper demonstrates the performative value of royal manuscripts as arguments for legitimacy and divine sanction. Building on a chronicle commissioned by Burhan al-Din and completed by his courtier Aziz ibn Ardashir al-Astarabadi, Bazm wa Razm, this study looks at the dynamic engagement of script, illumination, and illustration in all of his court’s material productions. The chronicle’s title recalls the twin foundations of Persianate monarchy, bazm—feasting, and razm—fighting, which by the late medieval period were linked to two of God’s complementary attributes in Islam: jamal (beauty) and jalal (majesty). For as long as the king and his dynasty persist, these two themes animate the material production of his court in a performance that transformed him into a shadow of God.
Ali Karjoo-Ravary is completing his dissertation, titled “Becoming a ‘King of Islam’: The Imperial Project of Qadi Burhan al-Din of Sivas (1345-1398 CE).” His research focuses on transregional intellectual and social histories of the premodern Islamic world and considers the interplay of language, material culture, Sufism, and Islamic Law.